FGD 81: One more for the road (6pm MT, SN West)

The Calgary Flames (36-33-10) complete the road half of their 2017-18 schedule tonight when they travel to scenic Winnipeg and the Bell MTS Centre to face the Jets (50-20-10). The Flames have been a strong road team this season, going 20-14-6 away from the Saddledome. But the Jets have won 50 games this season and are arguably Canada’s best Stanley Cup hope.

The puck drops just after 6 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

Projected lines, courtesy of Daily Faceoff:

Jon Gillies starts for the Flames. He’s backed up by Mike Smith. Matt Stajan and Chris Stewart are the healthy scratches, while the Flames are also without regulars TJ Brodie, Sean Monahan, Kris Versteeg and Matthew Tkachuk due to injury (and non-regular Marek Hrivik). Travis Hamonic has returned to practice, but is not quite ready to return to game action yet.

It’s the last road game of the year! The Flames are facing a playoff-bound team who are significantly better than they are. It’s a big challenge and hopefully the Flames are up for it. If not? It could get ugly.

Tuesday’s lines via Daily Faceoff:

Connor Hellebuyck starts for the Jets. He’s backed up by Steve Mason. The Jets didn’t skate yesterday so lines are a bit of guesswork. Adam Lowry, Blake Wheeler, Mark Schiefele, Josh Morrissey, Jacob Trouba and Hellebuyck were rested on Tuesday night, and they’re all expected to be in action tonight and bump Shawn Matthias, Marko Dano, Tucker Poolman and Sami Niku to the sidelines. Matt Hendricks is the other probable healthy scratch.

The Jets will finish second in the Central Division and face Minnesota in the first round, barring Nashville losing out and the Jets winning out. Thus, the Jets are hoping to keep everybody fresh (and healthy) and their game firing on all cylinders heading into the playoffs. They’ve lost one game since March 15, and that was the game where Chicago’s emergency backup goalie saved the day.

Flames: Not expected back this season are Daniel Pribyl (knee), Marek Hrivik (upper-body), Kris Versteeg (hip), Sean Monahan (various), Matthew Tkachuk (suspected concussion) and TJ Brodie (upper-body).

Winnipeg: Dmitry Kulikov (back) and Toby Enstrom (undisclosed) are out but remain on the active roster.

This is the third and final game between Calgary and Winnipeg this season. The Flames beat Winnipeg 6-3 in October and lost 2-1 in a shootout in January.

Here are some folks that tweet Jets tweets:

One last road game for the Flames as they play out the string.